3 Ways to Modernize Your Old E-learning Courses

Imagine this scenario: You create a course for one of your stakeholders’ sometime back in 2006. Fast forward to 2015: they come back with a requirement—they need to revamp the old course to suit their new learners. Instead of creating the course again from scratch, you can give your existing course a facelift in quick and cost-effective ways.

In this post, I will share with you 3 simple ways to modernize your old e-learning courses.

1. Re-design

Design elements have changed; what was in vogue a few years ago is old fashioned now. One quick way to modernize your course is to redesign them. You can make use of:

Backgrounds

Textures

Images

To add more life to your existing course, you can add more visual elements on your screen. This can drastically change the look and feel of your course. Have a look at how backgrounds made all the difference in the following example.

Before

After

A simple background can turn your course into a visual treat.

2. Re-organize content

With time, the way we organize content has changed drastically; take this opportunity to reorganize content. Do away with large chunks of boring paragraphs and try to show text in a more visual manner. You can make use of:

Pie charts to represent data

Info graphics to express ideas

Comic book style presentation to explain a scenario

Eliminate the boring bullets with an image behind and add more weight to your content with apt graphics. Take a look at the example below for better understanding.

Before

After

Reorganizing content to present it visually can bring your old course back to life.

3. Update with the latest versions of the authoring tool

Authoring tools such as Articulate Storyline, Lectora, and Adobe Captivate are updated with new versions on a yearly basis. For instance, if your old version was created with an older version of Articulate Storyline, you can now import the old file in Articulate Storyline 2 and update the course. The added advantage here is that you have many more animations and enhanced interactivities that literally changed the way your course was created previously. You not only meet the latest, industry standards, but also add new elements to the course which were considered impossible previously. Take a look at the difference between the two versions of the same tool.

Older version of the tool with few animation options.

Latest version of the tool with more animation options.

New and updated version of the tools can help you add new animated elements giving it a new dimension.

With these 3 ways to modernize your old e-learning courses, you can revamp the course in no time with little effort and achieve maximum output. If you know any other way that can help modernize your old courses, please do share.